I'm so grateful that you are here and love my work. All photos, tutorials, patterns, etc. are copyright protected, by 2 is Beautiful, LLC. Please do not use any of my photos, tutorials, patterns, etc. without expressed permission. If you create something from my tutorials, patterns, etc. please know they are for home and personal use only and please link back accordingly. Kid Giddy is a registered trademark of 2 is Beautiful, LLC. Thank you for your cooperation! - kg

Friday, February 25, 2011

There's just something magical about a photo booth! It certainly isn't the lighting or the lack of Photoshop to adjust the picture to my liking and rid any and all imperfections! But every chance I get to hop into a booth and snap a few random pictures to capture the joy or chaos of a moment...is nothing less than magic! Move over kiddos I'm coming in! In this instance my girls and I were buying new vest and coats (on sale) at LL Bean's since they grew out of their old ones!

If you can't find a photo booth near you....try setting up your camera on a tripod, in a really crammed space and take some of your own random and silly photo booth style pictures! Have an awesome weekend! See you Monday for my trip to CHA day 3!

Monday, February 21, 2011

My life is getting busier again! So I was hoping to have this post done already - but my blog always takes the brunt of my lack of time. The reasons are very good and when I can spill the beans of my latest project - I will...and this will be the first place I do it! So be on the look out!

OK - So day 2 of my trip to CHA went like this...I briefly woke up at about 3 in the morning with full light peering through my curtains...I thought it was sunlight - but it was really all the happy lights on buildings that surround the LA Live area! Once I figured that out - I joyfully went back to sleep for a while.

When it was really time to wake up - I talked to my hubby and my little girls and then worked on my press kits, showered and got dressed. I needed to drop off my Press Kits in the Press Room by 9am - so I was on the move rather quickly. I grabbed some breakfast in the hotel and won't ever do that again. Lesson learned! Then I grabbed the shuttle bus and headed over the the HUGE convention center. Once outside the Press Room - I sat down in the hallway and finished assembling them. The twig pencils - couldn't be attached too soon or they would rub all over the paper and make a mess. Once that was done - I headed off to the first of many seminars I signed up for!

Kid Giddy Press Kit Assembly

If you have an opportunity to attend either one of the CHA shows - come the day before and attend the seminars! Especially the Designer Section Roundtable Discussions! They were all chock full of great info! I'm so grateful I got to sit in on the table discussions and learn so much from these fine ladies...

My lovely CHA Mentor - Melony Bradley

Jen Goode (Gumdrop) and her happy Penguin!

Carla Schauer

Eileen Hull

Stefanie Girard and her kitties

When the day was over - I had tons of info, printouts and business cards, and a few blisters on my feet! Regardless of the pain - I wanted to walk back to the Hotel and see the sites along the way. It really was a short walk...

Grammy Museum Window

Walking on the Grammy Records....

Sparkling and "Dripping" lights on the trees...so pretty!

My longtime friend (and newlywed) Vicki showed up to hang out with me for the weekend since she lives in CA now and we don't get to hangout very often...It was so much fun to see her and find out all about her recent honeymoon!! Luckily she made reservations - so we headed out to the awesome Katsuya for a late dinner!

Katsuya Restaurant, LA Live

Shrimp Appetizer. Yes I ate it.

Dinner...Yum! I ate the Raw Tuna Sushi, but barely survived! I didn't eat the Crab or the Salmon. Sorry.

First of many Shirley Temples - love that little girl!

Vicki's dinner that came 20 mins after mine!

Yummy dessert - can't remember what it was called.

Our free dessert, because her dinner was so late getting out...Hot lava Chocolate YUM!

I also snapped a few shots for my husband...He would've loved to go to the Staples Center for a Laker's Game! Vicki tried to get us tickets but they were either sold out or $300 for some almost floor seats!

Across from the Staples Center was the Nokia Theatre at LA Live

This was the Post Game talk after the Lakers and Kings game

I'm sure my hubby knows who this is - but I sure don't! lol!

Had to get a picture of the Magic!

Now that my feet were really hurting, I was looking forward to going to sleep! zzzzzzz......

Friday, February 4, 2011

That's me in front of the "Hollywood" banner (standing on a red carpet)...being funny! They used it later Friday night for photo ops with a Marilyn Monroe look a like! lol!

Thursday morning I went to bed at 1:45 am, only 20 minutes after finding out that my flight to PA and LA was canceled due to a large snow storm! I worked so hard up to that point and was devestated at the thought, that maybe I wasn't meant to go, but I was somehow meant to do all that hard work.

I laid down and cried my eyes out and eventually fell asleep. When I woke, I confirmed that my flight was still canceled and began calling my Travel Agent to see if she could get me on another flight. I then hit the denial and angry stage when I was told that I was already rebooked on the same exact flight the next day! What? That's just not ok with me! So - she got on the phone and I held onto my sanity as long as I could.

Finally about an hour later - the words: ok - so you will leave Boston...on a non-stop flight to LA and arrive Thursday evening, only 1 1/2 hours later than originally planned! Whew! Crisis averted!

Sure enough - I packed my bags, dropped off my girls at a friends house, while another friend came to pick me up and take me to the bus station, traveled down to Boston (slept), and flew out of Boston as scheduled and into LA at 9:30. Good thing I was staying up so late each night the weeks prior....it actually helped avoid the serious jetlag!

This is some of the decor in the Hotel Figueroa lobby! The right picture is more the accurate colors! (and yes - it's very dark in that hotel with all the dim lighting and darker colors!)

7th Floor Hallway, Coming off the elevator, The Iron Gate doorway to the "hotel cafe"(really cool!)

I arrived at my "interesting" hotel room (Hotel Figueroa - when AAA says it's not even on their list - don't stay there) - it wasn't horrible - it was just tiny and hasn't been updated in ages. The people were extremely nice and the decor was actually pretty cool. The keys were still real keys. How long do you think they've had those keys - and how many of them have possibly been copied somehow?! Scary when you really think about it. No deadlocks, only chains...really weird.

Note to self: Next time get the double queen room - it was way bigger!

The bathroom was tiny - the door opened up only to hit the toilet seat! You could barely make it around the door to get to it!

Left view out my window - Straight out my window (with dolls in someones LR), and Right view!

I unpacked only a little...painted my finger nails green with white polka dots (thank goodness for 10 minute drying drops!) and then went to bed.....I can't decided if that was a rather eventful or uneventful kind of day! lol! I just know that I was so grateful to be there and not waiting another whole day to get out there and missing all day Friday! What a blessing!

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